i had my final breast mri today. the guy that put my iv in kept trying to calm me as i kept saying,
seriously, i'm not nervous. i've done this before. a bunch. also, not afraid of needles. also, not afraid of my own blood. seriously i'm fine. i took a xanax. the claustrophobia thing isn't a huge deal.
apparently my calmness flustered him because he kept dropping things and making stupid comments like, 'wow, a breast mri huh? you look young for that.' 'wow, a mastectomy huh?' 'wow, you have kids huh? you started young. me too. i'm a grandpa and i'm only 36.' 'wow, you're like the super patient.' 'hang in there, it'll be okay.
the mri itself only took 20 minutes which seriously makes me wonder why the ones at stanford usually take an hour. the actual tech was super nice, brought me warm blankets and talked me through the whole thing. the xanax i took was so effective that i think i dozed off in the machine. then, when she started the contrast flowing through the iv apparently it blew a loose connection and i started bleeding everywhere. i had no way to tell her and i could feel the contrast going in so i just had to wait until the whole thing was over. 'oh no! you sprung a leak!' i bled all over the inside of a million dollar machine and then smeared it everywhere as she pulled me out. she promised to make the chatty phlebotomist clean it up. win.
i drug mara to walmart (aka the gates of hell) with me tonight and grabbed a couple of these sports bras that close in the front. i have no idea what size i'll be at the end of my surgery. they're taking the tissue. but they're adding the expanders with a little saline. but i'll be super swollen. but for how long? but i'll be getting frequent expansions. but they'll likely be lopsided at first. in any case, i'm spending minimal amounts on undergarments until i get the implants put it...